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Seven wins Olympic broadcast deal

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) confirmed on Monday it had awarded Seven the Australian broadcast rights for the Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro in 2016 and Tokyo in 2020.

Kerry Stokes’ network also will broadcast the Winter Games in PyeongChang in 2018 and the Summer Youth Olympic Games in Nanjing in 2014.

Seven has acquired broadcast rights on all media platforms.

The last Olympics Seven broadcast was the 2008 Beijing Games after the Nine Network and Foxtel jointly paid $A122 million for the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics and the 2012 London Summer Olympics.

Ten covered the recent Winter Olympics in Sochi.

Seven reportedly paid less than $A200 million for the rights after Ten and Nine dropped out of the bidding.

“Seven has a lot of experience in broadcasting major sports events, and first broadcast an Olympic Games in Melbourne in 1956,” IOC President Thomas Bach said.

“We are delighted that we will work with Seven until at least 2020.

“The IOC enjoys long term partnerships and this agreement is something of a homecoming between us and Seven.

“Seven has made a concrete commitment to help promote the Olympic Movement and the Olympic values, not only during each edition of the games, but all year round, and this was an important consideration in our decision making.”

Mr Stokes said he was delighted with the deal.

“The Olympic movement and Seven have enjoyed a long and deep partnership since the Games in Melbourne,” he said.

“We are looking forward celebrating our five decades association with the Olympics in Rio and to taking this partnership to a new level over the coming decade.”

Australian IOC vice-president John Coates, a member of the IOC’s TV Rights and New Media Commission, welcomed Seven back.

“We’ve had a long relationship with Seven, which last covered the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games, and we are happy to welcome them back to the Olympic team,” he said.